Credit freeze: What is it and should you do it?

If your debit card has been breached: Do all of the above as for credit cards, but pay very careful attention to your account. Also, you will need to unfreeze the account if, and when, you do a legitimate credit check. This can be done temporarily, either for a set time or for a particular party, like a landlord or lender. You'll have to request to lift the freeze if you want to open a new line of credit yourself.

If you're a resident of certain states - like ME or SC - it's free. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are already investigating. Some of these scores are tabulated by the bureaus themselves, and others are calculated by third parties based on the information the bureaus provide.

"Let's say you're a Canadian applying for a mortgage in the US for your cottage". Samuel Gilford, spokesman for the CFPB has stated that CFPB is authorized to pursue enforcement actions against companies that engage in "unfair, deceptive or abusive practices" but that the CFPB "cannot comment further at this time".

What's the difference between a credit freeze and a fraud alert? A freeze takes consumers' credit reports out of circulation from the nation's three leading credit-monitoring firms: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. So the company's potential liability to investors in a securities class action is probably going to be dwarfed by the class action claims of consumers whose social security numbers and other confidential data was snatched by hackers. If you freeze it, it isn't as valuable.

"This is one of the one of the top three credit agencies, you're hiring people to work the phone for a huge mistake, probably one of the largest ever for this industry, and you're hiring people who have no idea what the answers are?" she said. It's helpful, but it is often after the fact.

"It's shameful that Equifax would take advantage of victims by forcing people to sign over their rights in order to get credit monitoring services they wouldn't even need if Equifax hadn't put them at risk in the first place".

Sure. When your credit is frozen you can continue to operate your financial life just as you typically would. This way, you can keep tabs on your credit history and score every four months at no cost.

No. If you want to stop getting prescreened offers of credit, call 888-5OPTOUT (888-567-8688) or go online. Banks, mortgage providers, auto dealerships, employers and landlords are just some of the groups that can access this information when deciding to enter into a transaction with you. But the credit reporting agency could have a lot of your personal information and this summer it was hacked! If it does, you should get it within 10 to 14 business days, according to Nicole Tiggemann, a spokeswoman for the agency.

The company is now doing everything it can to support those affected, he wrote: "Our team is focused on this effort, and we are engaged around the clock in responding to millions of inquiries from consumers".

It's not clear whether the mechanism TransUnion says it uses to "lock" files with that product provides the same protection as a freeze, or whether it is a lesser form of protection meant to shield TransUnion from some regulatory or legal perspective.